Virtual local area network (“VLAN”) standards have been developed for use by stationary clients or stations. For example, the IEEE 802.1Q standard focuses on stationary devices. Problems such as diminished bandwidth on a radio frequency medium, computational overhead (e.g., status messaging), and power management concerns associated with periodic multicast traffic have generally limited the applicability of such standards to mobile-enabled or portable devices.
To strictly adhere to GARP (Generic Attribute Registration Protocol) and other supplemental protocols such as GVRP (GARP VLAN Registration Protocol), mobile stations would generally have to send many multiple messages every time roaming occurred (e.g., associate with an access point, register VLAN information). GVRP is used to propagate VLAN membership information throughout a switched network when a mobile device or station moves. If the station also participates in other protocols such as GMRP (GARP Multicast Reservation Protocol) (used for dynamic multicast address filtering), mobile stations would have to send additional registration packet(s) and handle and respond to corresponding messages. Again, power management and bandwidth issues may arise in such a system.